I hope everyone’s 2022 season is going well so far. I have a couple of girls who are getting very close to ovulation and I was wondering, when does everyone else stop offering food and pairing females who are obviously going to ovulate really soon?
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I feed until they refuse or see the ovulation. Most of mine go off feed two weeks prior to ovulation. You should pair before ovulation… at least once and that isn’t ideal in my opinion because what if they don’t lock. Although now that I reread you post maybe you meant stop pairing?? I read it as start pairing, which I stop pairing when the female no longer accepts the male or I see an ovulation Also any point up until ovulation they can resorb the follicles.
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I feed until the stop taking food. I stop pairing after the post ov shed
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I’ve had a few that have been off food for about a month now and I can visibly see a bulge in their stomachs. Almost at ovy but not quite, they look super uncomfortable so I’ve stopped offering food to not disturb them but I was really wondering if I should still pair those two because they are getting so big
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How many missed feeds would you consider them “off food”? 2 weeks? A month?
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I feed every week so for me it’s two weeks… but each female is different. If they are off food and still getting larger they are likely close or already ovulated. There isn’t a reason you can’t offer food or even try to pair. The female will reject the male after ovulation
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I only offer food every other week so… LOL
It is less a time thing and more a behaviour thing, an animal that is just not interested in food behaves different than a female that is refusing because she is gravid
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I offer food every other week to my big females and my males. Both females I’m talking about have been pounding food for months then suddenly had no interest. I just didn’t wanna keep offering and stress them out. Same thing with putting a male in with them
When I start to question what’s going on things start to happen lol female number 2 ovulating this morning
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I always offer food unless they’ve ovulated. I’ve had some eat all the way to ovulation and I’ve also had others go off food for a month or two before ovulation but I still offered meals and let them decide if they want it or not lol
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